Master’s Thesis in Sociology, Track: Urban Sociology
AN URBAN PARADOX - ROLE ADJUSTMENTS
OF STREET MUSICIANS AND THEIR COPING
WITH CIVIL INATTENTION
Tianyi Fang (10653872)
tianyi.fang@student.uval.nl Universiteit van Amsterdam
1
Acknowledgements
Firstly I would like to thank my first supervisor, Dr. Freek Janssens, who always took the time to answer my enquiries and gave valuable suggestions as well as reassurances to guide me through over the past few months.
Secondly I would like to thank my second supervisor, Dr. Walter Nicholls, for providing helpful and reassuring comments during thesis proposal seminars.
I would also like to thank all those individuals who gave me permissions and access to observe their work. And all the respondents who granted me their time and personal space in participating in the interviews. Special thanks to Vince, who acted as a broker in the research process, and took me throughout the city and shared so many interesting stories.
I would like to thank all my family for their support over the past year, while I was away from Canada for the Master’s degree in Amsterdam. I would not have made it without your encouragements. Huge thank you to my parents, who supported along the way, and to my newly-wed wife, Wen Wen, without whom I might have stayed in Canada, and would never have had such an awesome year here in Europe.
Lastly but not least, I would like to thank Professor Jooyoung Lee, sociology department, University of Toronto, who had inspired me to conduct a pilot study which eventually turned into this thesis.
2
Abstract
As an often overlooked group who are present along the busiest parts of our cities, street musicians could be used as a case to analyze a social norm known as civil inattention. The nature of their job require the musicians’ best efforts to draw attention of by passers and thus earn a living. Hence this could be considered as a daily struggle against the ritualistic urban norm. The internalized indifference toward street musicians, although often unintentional, could be a major factor resulting in dilemmas in these musicians’ lives. Yet the earnings and fitting in of street musicians solely depend on their contention for the often limited space, time, and ultimately, attention. Street musicians often carry multiple roles simultaneously which could spread both spatially and temporally. As these dynamic roles constantly interfere, intermingle or interchange with each other, accompanied with the external adversity brought by civil inattention, the internal dilemma of these individuals further exacerbates.
However, as time passes and experience cumulates, street musicians not only passively adapt to the external adversities, at the same time they gradually develop sets of coping strategies and techniques to counter civil inattention. Yet this may not be applicable to all street musicians, who tend to be in different stages of their fitting, and possess different sets of roles. The development of coping mechanism, learning of strategies, and personal coping capability are all dependent on the sets of roles (alternatively existent and/or formerly possessed). Analysis of these processes, and building up of a grounded theory based on empirical findings are the key purpose of this qualitative study which also takes the shape of an ethnographical research.
3 Table of Contents
1. Introduction 4
2. Literature Review
2.1 Unwritten Rule of the City 6
2.2 Role Adjustment of Street Musicians 10
2.3 Hypotheses 13
3. Methodology
3.1 Context and Sample Selection 15
3.2 Data Collection 3.3 Data Analysis 16 17 3.4 Limitations 3.5 Ethical Considerations 17 18 4. Data and Analysis
4.1 Categorization of Street Musicians
4.2 The Unwritten Rule and Indifferent By-passers 4.3 Coping Strategies & Coping capability Development
4.4 Relationship between Role Multiplicity & Coping Strategies
20 23 27 31 5. Discussion and Conclusion
5.1 Conclusion
5.2 Discussion & Critical Reflection
35 37 References Appendix 39 42
4
1- Introduction
In early 2007, the Washington Post, with the help of Joshua Bell, a world-renowned classical musician, conducted an experiment in which Bell performed outside a Washington metro station pretending to be a street musician.
"At a music hall, I'll get upset if someone coughs or if someone's cellphone goes off. But here, my expectations quickly diminished. I started to appreciate any acknowledgment, even a slight glance up. I was oddly grateful when someone threw in a dollar instead of change." (Washington Post, 2007)
The quote, from an interview of Bell following hours of playing violin under disguise, illustrates the paradox that exist in almost all urban contexts in the contemporary world. The adversity and ‘disappointment’ are evident from Bell’s narration that draws comparison between his career as a professional classical musician and performing by a busy transportation hub. This experiment could be considered as a representation of an urban paradox where the need for attention on the side of street musicians is met by an ‘invisible web’ known as civil inattention.
The personal interest in street musicians originate from weeks long observations of urbanites walking along streets and passage ways in urban centres of various cities and how their behavioral pattern greatly affect the work and daily living of many street musicians. Most urbanites constantly attempt to avoid direct eye contact with other individuals unknown to them. Much of the time, urbanites tend to exchange a quick glance when they are a safe distance apart, but as they approach each other, their gaze are quickly averted. (Hirschauer, 2005:41; Goffman, 1963)
As an often overlooked group who are present along the busiest parts of our cities, street musicians could be used as a case to analyze such behavioral patterns of the contemporary urbanites. The nature of these musicians’ job requires the musicians’ best efforts to draw the attention of the by passers and thus earn a living. The musicians’ busking activities are almost a daily struggle against the prevalent ritual-like behaviors of the urbanites. In this case the internalized indifference toward street musicians, although often unintentional, could be a major factor resulting in dilemmas in these musicians’ lives. Most people travel through urban spaces with purposes and destinations in mind, they tend to walk with determined pace, resulting in their lack of interest or willingness to stop by or make any form of acknowledgement of the performers, not to mention indicating any sense of appreciation. Yet the earnings and fitting in of street musicians solely depend on their contention for the often limited space, time, and ultimately, attention.
Street musicians often carry multiple roles simultaneously or have ex-roles before entering their current role. In more general terms, many street musicians perform and busk at public urban spaces as a part-time or seasonal job, and often have other jobs or former jobs, many are professional (semi-professional) musicians or perform at various occasions, whilst some are retired musicians, teach instruments at their spare time, music students performing for their tuition fees, others
5
worked in completely different fields before becoming street musicians. In short, for most street musicians, busking by the passage ways, along pavements or squares are not their only role. Through a pilot study, many street musicians tend to be in the process of leaving their ex-roles and blending into the new social setting and their new roles, while some persistently face internal struggle between these current roles as street musicians and their alternative roles. The amount of attention from the urbanites directly affects the earnings of these musicians, and at the same time, influences the course of self-adjustment and their gradual fitting in.
In short, this proposed study presents a rather peculiar scenario in a common urban context. This is a research study on the paradoxical ‘conflict’ between the daily contentions for attention by street musicians ‘against’ a largely internalized societal behavior that has become so prevalent in most urban public spaces (coined as ‘civil inattention’ by Erving Goffman (1963)). In a way this situation provides an ‘extreme’ yet strategic case for the study of civil inattention as part of urban culture and behavioral pattern.
Research Question
The overarching purpose of the proposed study is to analyze the relationship between role multiplicities amongst street musicians and their coping (strategies and ability) with civil inattention in public urban spaces.
Putting this in a question form:
What impact do the multiple roles possessed by street musicians have on their coping with civil inattention and their blending in process?
In order to attempt answering this overarching research question, this is then broken down into a set of sub-questions to help make better sense of the question, and construct a logical order when approaching the main question:
-How is ‘civil inattention’ maintained amongst urbanites and in what ways does this behavioral
pattern affect other individuals in urban public spaces?
-How do street musicians negotiate time and space, and attempt to break through the civil
inattention?
-To what extent do their multiple roles stretch across spatial and temporal spectra? And in what
ways do these diversified roles interfere, intermingle and interchange with each other?
-How do the constant interference/intermingling/interchanging among different roles hinder OR
6
2- Literature Review
2.1 Unwritten Rule of the City
The ritual-like social phenomenon of urbanites continuously attempting to avoid interaction is what Erving Goffman (1963) describes as ‘civil inattention’. According to whom, “the interactional pattern of civil inattention is related to a chronic problem of co-presence in public settings: the problem of staying unknown to each other.” (Goffman, 1963) Moreover, various defensive techniques are often used to maintain a degree of personal space and hence continue to ‘stay unknown to each other’ (Goffman, 1963).
Eyes as one of the human senses, forms a key foundation to the interaction between individuals on a day-to-day basis, as Goffman (1963) claims, “Eye-to-eye looks play a special role in the life of the community’. This, however, is not always the case as often noted by individuals who have had experience living in an urban environment. Under many circumstances, unacquainted individuals are in close proximity and tend to make minimal eye contact in order to avoid embarrassment and to maintain a certain degree of personal space. As according to Goffman (1963), in “Behaviour in Public Places”, a typical encounter between two unacquainted individuals follows a behavioral pattern. While still at a safe distance from each other the two may exchange a quick glance, the looks are then lowered and raised again only at the moment of passing. (Hirschauer, 2005:41) This process is termed as civil inattention, a concept coined by Goffman. This process has become so common in urban settings, that it almost seem like an ‘unwritten rule’ which is expected to be followed by all individuals, and if breached may seem odd and at times bring unanticipated trouble. The Amsterdam metro stations provide a simple example to conduct such observations as the platforms are meeting places of random individuals who are confined by a fixed boundary with limited space available. As the metro riders stand on the platforms waiting for the trains to arrive, they tend to space out within the boundary as a way to keep a distance from others. The spacing, interestingly, always spread out in a symmetric pattern. Furthermore, the travelers use various types of protective/defensive tools and techniques to maintain this spacing. The cell phones, books, and iPods are often seen as a way to pass time while waiting on the platforms. However, at the same time these tools can be depicted as protective techniques to maintain a degree of personal space. In order to not make the indifference toward other individuals to be seen as an unwelcoming and cold behaviour, many urbanites tend to use these tools to avoid embarrassment. By indulging themselves in the reading, music, gaming or text messaging, it would make their behaviour seem more ‘natural’. While postures and gestures are more direct ways of maintaining a comfortable personal space.
Goffman thinks that “strangeness as normalized non-relation, vitally needed in urbanized mass societies for the endless occurrence of encounters between people in public.”, “the interactional pattern of civil inattention is related to a chronic problem of co-presence in public settings: the
7
problem of staying unknown to each other.” (1963:84). Indeed, in urban settings where countless unavoidable encounters with unacquainted individuals are made every day, it would be practically impossible to directly interact with each and every one of them, and under such circumstance, one tends to try stay unknown to each other and this is usually achieved through maintaining a personal distance and avoiding direct eye-contact. In Warren’s study, she uses ethnographical observation and field notes taken in various public settings such as elevator, super market and concert, to illustrate this process. In this study her main concern is the importance of the eye during interaction between individuals. According to her there exists a “hierarchy of social control in public everyday life settings that begins with eyes, proceeds to bodily gestures and sounds, progresses to verbal conflict, goes on to physical altercation, and ends (perhaps) with the involvement of social control agents. This hierarchy of social control depends not only on what norms are violated, but also on the age, race, social class, sexuality, and gender (etc.) of violators and their audiences.” (Warren, 2011: 545) This in a way illustrates that there indeed is a social control concerning the process of civil inattention. Her examples of elevator, supermarket and rock concert depict the importance of following these rules and possible outcomes of violating such rules. During social encounters, gestures/reactions such as ones illustrated in Warren’s (2011) scenarios, when noticed and taken in by another individual, would bring about personal interpretations and reflection of the meaning of these gestures/reactions. Such reflexive interpretations would in turn result in the individual acting and reacting accordingly to the expectations of the ‘others’. (Mead, 1934)
In Goffman’s other works, a clear link can be noticed between civil inattention and some of his other concepts. According to Goffman’s (1963) dramaturgical analysis, individuals tend to act in their daily life with a similarity to theatrical performances. As in theatrical stages, individuals also act accordingly and differently in their back stages and their front stages. In the case of civil inattention, due to the overwhelming amount of encounters with other individuals, one needs to ‘act’ and play to the role of noticing other unacquainted individuals, at the same time, avoid direct interaction with them. Due to the institutionalization of such behaviour in urban settings, with a strictly followed social control, individuals follow the rule not only to avoid excessive interactions, but also to avoid unnecessary embarrassment as well as other undesirable outcomes that may arise from breaching the rule. In addition, due to the dramaturgical nature of human behaviour in public setting, the obeying could also in a way be depicted as the management of impression upon other individuals. The avoidance of eye-contact, maintaining a certain distance from others would be defensive and protective techniques to maintain a desired impression upon others. (Hirschauer, 2005: 50)
This social process, as it develops, becomes institutionalized and eventually involves a hierarchy of social control (Warren, 2011:545). An unwritten rule is set around the process, and violation in public may result in embarrassment or even potential conflicts with other individuals. With this form of informal social control and an almost ritualistic compliance with the norm adopted by most urbanites, there comes a binding effect. As the society consist of individuals and social groups of dynamic backgrounds, the binding strength of the unwritten rule would in turn differ. However,
8
this may have a negative side to it, as often noticed by individuals who are new to an urban setting. This is partly the reason why urban areas are sometimes described as coldly indifferent, lacking emotion, and short of empathy.
This behavioral pattern amongst urbanites does not only enhance the avoidance of unnecessary interactions with strangers, but also exerts significant impact on the works, lives and the fitting in of many street musicians, whom according to Bywater (2007) are in constant ‘struggle’ to draw attention as well as contend for limited space and time, which is evident through the Joshua Bell experiment. Moreover, the potentially existing social control over civil inattention could directly affects the binding effect of the ‘unwritten rule’, which could vary depending on a range of factors including the relative social positions, age, gender, and even time and location. Hence could play a part in the street musicians’ coping with this urban ‘unwritten rule’.
The web of ‘civil inattention’ cast upon the street musicians by the general urbanites, although often unintentional, can be a major factor resulting in their personal dilemmas. The indifference shown from the majority of by-passers does not necessarily indicate an absolute non-existence of any interaction. Some of such interactions are verbal, but more than often these only involved glances, gestures, direct or indirect eye-contacts.
The degree of indifference and the blasé attitude of the common urbanites often depend on various factors. For instance the time of the day directly affects the walking pace of the urban travelers and the attention they pay to the surroundings. During rush hour, as most people are either on their way to work or school, individuals maintain very fast pace and often do not pay any attention to the musicians. From 10am to 12pm and in the afternoon, travelers and by-passers in the same urban spaces mostly consist of older people and those travelling for purposes other than to work or school. As these travelers are not bound by an immediate obligation, these people often walk in slower pace compared to those during rush hours. The age of the urbanites may also directly affect the amount of attention they pay to the musicians, and hence affecting the binding effect of the ‘unwritten rule’ as part of urban culture, that is, the blasé attitude. Older people and children, as relatively marginal social groups, do not necessarily follow the ‘unwritten rule’ as closely as those between 30 and 50. And most of the time, those who pay the most attention to the musicians are children, whereas many of those who leave tips tend to be elderly those accompanied by ‘relatively marginalized others’.
The framework, generated on the basis of Erving Goffman’s (1959) theatrical model and civil inattention, can be effective in exploring the behavioral patterns of many urbanites. The internalization of such behaviour, as well as the formation of an ‘unwritten rule’, can in turn shed light to the origin of the dilemma of the street musicians in urban spaces. However, the micro context in this case is twofold, hence the two sides of the scenario deserve equal amount of consideration. Yet with the current framework, the agency, sense of identity and the coping techniques of the musicians themselves do not receive adequate attention. Furthermore, this model is overly micro-oriented, whereby micro behaviors on the side of urbanites and the impacts of such
9
behaviour upon marginalized groups, in this case street musicians, are the focus. In order to bring more depth to the particular context and the causal relationship, a multi-layered approach is essential, and meso as well as macro level approaches would be equally helpful.
Firstly, again originating from the side of the urbanites, there are alternative theoretical frameworks that could be helpful in explaining the causes of the behavioral pattern. Sociological study of urban matters and behaviors of urbanites originate from Simmel’s “The Metropolis and Mental Life” (Bridge & Watson, 2012), in which his depictions of the weakening of sense of community, the growing emphasis of independency and individualism in urban lives and the blasé attitude held by many urbanites directly correspond to the theoretical framework based on theatrical frame/face work. As urbanites become increasingly independent, while contemporary urban cultural values gradually lean toward individualism, individual urbanites become more sensitive toward the safeguarding of their personal space. The urbanization processes throughout the globe led to greater population density and greater quantity of information along urban streets. As result of these factors, urbanites either consciously make use of the blasé attitude to maintain the personal space, and reduce the stress resulting from the overwhelming amount of information presented in urban centres, or subconsciously do so as the attitude gradually become internalized and ‘informally institutionalized’. Robert Putnam (1995) is yet another example of this view point, according to whose view, technological changes over the past decades have further weakened inter-personal ties among urbanites. The internet, smart phones and other such communicative tools provide options for urbanites, which in turn further increase the distance between the passersby and the street performers.
John Urry’s (Bridge & Watson, 2012) notion of ‘connection’ in urban public spaces adds yet another phase to the discussion and provide explanations to the causes of the fast pace often witnessed among urbanites travelling through subway stations and along urban streets. Directly or indirectly making connections with ‘significant others’ is an essential part of social life, and urbanites often travel through urban spaces carrying various obligations and with specific purposes as well as destinations in mind (Bridge & Watson, 2012). Some may be travelling due to familial or economic obligations, for instance commuting to work, returning home or attending classes. Many also carry ‘time obligations’ (Bridge & Watson, 2012), as many urbanites need to minimized travelling time in order to spend adequate time for their specific purposes or have to arrive at a destination at a specific time. All these elements further reduce the attention or time common urbanites can spare while passing by the musicians along the passage ways, not to mention the already internalized ‘buffer zones’ and ‘floating bubbles’.
Similar to the model based on Goffman’s (1959) theatrical frame and civil inattention, all the above theoretical approaches focus on the urbanites and their behavioral patterns and may somewhat overlook the agency of the street musicians. One way of approaching this could be the stigma faced by this particular subcultural group. Richard Sennett (Bridge & Watson, 2012), in his writing on public realm in urban spaces, discusses the mixture of ‘difference and indifference’ from both positive and negative views. As urbanites come across individuals of a different subcultural or
10
social group, the difference may then lead to intentional or unintentional indifference. If viewed negatively this could be a representation of the ‘lack of social cohesion’ in the contemporary urban spaces, whilst when viewed positively, such difference and indifference arguably provides the urbanites with greater personal space and individual freedom (Bridge & Watson, 2012). However, such positive interpretation only applies to the passersby, whereas on the side of the musicians, this further exacerbates their dilemma. Furthermore, as the musicians constantly attempt to draw the attention of the passersby and perform selectively in order to appeal to the passersby, such unbalanced power relation, together with the difference in terms of habitus and relative social position in the micro contexts, could all lead to stigma directed at the musicians. The frequently witnessed indifference shown from the passersby, occasional walking around or increase in pace in order to avoid any kind of interaction, or the usage of various tools in order to achieve the same goal, could all be considered as practices that result in stigma toward these street musicians. Another dimension lacking from the framework based on Goffman’s (1959) theatrical model and civil inattention is the public policy and regulations in urban spaces. As aforementioned, the social positions of passersby and the musicians differ in the micro context due to the difference between their roles in the specific circumstances. The difference between social positions could be much greater when policy makers and decision makers are taken into consideration. Urban spaces are closely regulated and monitored by the local authorities in all urban centres, the public spaces where musicians perform at and the street musicians themselves are no exception to these regulations and surveillance. In many contexts, for instance London, the UK and Toronto, Canada, street musicians are often selectively issued licenses and can only perform at specific locations during specific hours. While in other contexts, such as near the Central Station, Amsterdam, street musicians are forbidden to perform at any time and in any location that is within the boundary of the train station. In many of such contexts, the street musicians, being separated by a greater social distance from the decision makers, are often not represented in the decision making processes, and are directly affected and monitored by various agencies and authorities. In order to shed light to the situations faced by street musicians (as a social group), analyses of public policies, administration of urban public spaces and transportation hubs (such as subway/underground, train stations, etc.), and administration of street musicians, could add further depth to the study of street musicians.
2.2 Role Adjustment of Street Musicians
This study is designed on the basis of a set of assumptions, which were made through past experience with street musicians and a small scaled pilot study conducted in Amsterdam.
1) Street musicians possess various roles 2) These roles stretch across time and space
11
4) These roles (regardless of special or temporal position) do not disappear 5) Some may gain an upper-hand at a given time
Roles in this case differ from those used by Goffman (1963; 1967) in his works. In this study, roles are much more general and broader in scope. In order to seek an answer to the research question and shed light on the coping mechanisms of street musicians, their personal background need to be thoroughly explored and analyzed. Roles in this scenario include a broad spec including personal background, gender, age, professional background, ethnic background, linguistic background, or any roles relevant in his/her social network, professional network, family, etc. Moreover, in order to explore the adaptation and coping processes, these roles need to be distinguished based on a timeline. For instance, when looking at one’s professional background, a past/ex role would be one’s previous profession performed before becoming a street musician, whilst the current role would be one’s profession at the present time, which in this case would be the role as a street musician.
These roles could stretch across time, whereas past/ex roles could create a sense of nostalgic feeling when faced by adversities. This is as illustrated in Joshua Bell’s example, being unaccustomed to the indifferent by passers, he seemed to be astonished by the sharp difference between street performance and performing in a grand hall. Yet as he played for some time, his mentality gradually adjusted, and became almost ‘grateful’ toward any signs of appreciation or noticing. (Washington Post, 2007) His previous and more formal role as a renowned violinist played an upper hand when he first began performing. The sharp contrast was at first hard to bear, however, as he played for some time, he was able to adapt to the new role as a street musician. As the adaptation process takes place, Bell began to appreciate and even becoming “grateful” to what he would have deemed as trivial reactions before participating in this experiment. Helen Rose Ebaugh’s (1988) model of role exit could provide a useful framework in analyzing the role adjustment processes of these musicians.
The term ‘role exit’ was first introduced by Blau (1973), according to whom the notion refers to leaving behind a major role/identity upon one point over the life course. Blau classifies this process into four types, namely ‘an act of nature’, ‘expulsion by a group or large collectivity’, ‘involuntary action’, and ‘voluntary action’. (Blau, 1973; Breese & O’Toole, 1995) Ebaugh (1977; 1988), based on Blau’s concept, conducted researches on the voluntary type of role exit. In her works, the term ‘role-exit’ is defined as “the departure from any role that is central to one’s self-identity” (Ebaugh, 1988, pp 149). She formulated this theoretical framework after her research on 57 ex-nuns, and later expanded on this initial research by studying groups of retirees, former addicts, and others who, upon one point in their lives, gave up a certain central role (Ebaugh, 1977; Ebaugh, 1988). From these researches, she develops four stages of the role-exit process, firstly ‘doubting’, then ‘seeking and weighing alternatives’, thirdly ‘negotiating turning points’, and lastly ‘post-exit adjustment’ (Ebaugh, 1988).
12
As musicians enter their new roles as street performers, the ‘doubting, seeking and weighing alternatives, negotiating turning points, and post-exit adjustment’ stages could all vary depending on a series of variables, such as their age, gender, type of former roles, duration of their former roles, number of alternative roles, duration of their entry to the new role, along with many others (Ebaugh, 1988). Ebaugh’s model, as point out by George (1993), has its limitations. According to George (1993), Ebaugh’s samples only consist of individuals who have completed the role exit process, i.e. her study subjects have fully/partially left their ex-roles. In the case of street musicians, these individuals often carry multiple roles simultaneously or are still in the process of leaving their ex-roles and entering their current role. The role exit and role entry processes are complex enough on their own, yet these are further complicated by the internalized behavioral pattern of the urbanites and the deliberate protective techniques used in order to maintain their personal space and ‘floating bubble’. Such complexity add on to the dilemma faced by the street musicians, and may in turn severely hinder their exit from their ex-role as well as their entry to their new role. The role adjustment process of these street musicians, as aforementioned, may stretch across time and space. The temporal spectrum is partly explained through Ebaugh’s (1988) model. However, as the process is ongoing, whilst the roles are assumed to be continuous and do not disappear over time, this framework alone does not adequately do justice to the continuity and interchanging nature lying under these roles. Taking these into consideration, referring back to Goffman’s (1963) work, the dramaturgical model (the front stage and back stage roles) could be applied not only to the common urbanites alone, but could be applied to street musicians as well, and could provide an effective way to analyze their spatially stretched roles.
To simplify this complex ‘web’ of various roles possibly possessed by street musicians, these could be placed into three main categories, namely ‘ex-roles’, ‘current roles’ and ‘alternative roles’. ‘Ex-roles’, borrowed from Ebaugh’s (1988) model and lying upon the temporal spectrum, would be the previous roles possessed by the street musicians that continuously exert considerable impact on their current work and blending in. ‘Alternative roles’ would lie on the spatial spectrum, and would play a similar role as the ‘back stage’ in Goffman’s (1963) dramaturgical model. ‘Current roles’ could be perceived as the ‘focal point’ where spatial and temporal spectra meet. Referring to the temporal spectrum, ‘current roles’ would be the roles possessed by street musicians at the present time, whilst upon the spatial spectrum, this would be Goffman’s ‘front stage’.
Selecting street musicians as the research subject in this study is partly due to the extremeness of the contention between ‘civil inattention’ and ‘struggle for attention’ as aforementioned. Yet, there is more significance to this selection. Taking in mind the nature of a typical street musician’s working condition, who often performs and busks by the pavement or a square where a considerable flow of walking traffic is expected. This means that unlike other artists or performers, the ‘stage’ upon which street musicians perform at are the public spaces, and there is no clear boundary between their ‘front stage’ and ‘back stage’ in the literal sense and metaphorically used in Goffman’s (1963) writings. Symbolically the ‘back stage’ could represent the musicians’ private sphere, while ‘front stage’ their public sphere. With a lack of clear boundary between the ‘front’
13
and ‘back’ stages, this means that street musicians and the alterations of their roles can be observable, as they are often fully exposed to the public as they perform. This, however, does not mean that observations alone can adequately shed light to the research question. Without a multi-dimensional combination of research techniques, much of the observable occurrences cannot be placed with reliable and verifiable meanings.
2.3 Hypotheses
Building from the basis of the previously discussed literature, personal assumptions, and research question (sub-questions), a set of hypotheses are developed as according to each of the specific questions to be answered. These hypotheses, which at the stage are based on assumptions and theoretical concepts, will be further tested on with support from empirical findings.
Main research question:
What impact do the multiple roles possessed by street musicians have on their coping with civil inattention and their blending in process?
Hypothesis 1
-How is ‘civil inattention’ maintained amongst urbanites and in what ways does this behavioral
pattern affect other individuals in urban public spaces?
Civil Inattention is a ritualistic behavior pattern that is adopted (consciously, subconsciously or unconsciously) by general urbanites as part of an ongoing social process.
The Unwritten Rule that is expected to be followed, and is indeed followed by most urbanites, can be measured with a binding strength, which may differ with different social groups and is not constant with all members of the society. The binding strength may be stronger with certain social groups, while weaker with others.
Hypothesis 2
-How do street musicians negotiate time and space, and attempt to break through the civil
inattention?
The income and fitting in of street musicians is dependent on their contention for limited space, time and ultimately attention. As time passes, musicians self-adapt to the external adversities and internal conflicts (personal dilemma), and experience gradually builds up. Coping strategies and individual capability develop over time, which could be two-fold. As street musicians’ adaptation to the external and internal adversities take place ‘passively’, they also tend to ‘assertively’ seek to use some of the external factors to their own advantage in tackling civil inattention. Various coping strategies hence are learned and enhanced.
14 Hypothesis 3
-To what extent do their multiple roles stretch across spatial and temporal spectra? And in what
ways do these diversified roles interfere, intermingle and interchange with each other?
Street musicians possess roles of various types, which stretch across two dimensions, one being spatial and the other temporal.
Roles that lie upon the spatial spectrum: Front Stage Back Stage
OR
Public Sphere of Life Private Sphere of Life Roles that lie upon the temporal spectrum: Role-exit and Role-entry processes
Ex-Roles Current Roles
Movements of roles across these two spectra are not unidirectional, and are not static. Furthermore, they do not fade out from one’s life permanently. Rather they tend to linger and an interference/intermingling/interchanging motion may take place between various roles. In simpler terms, on one hand, the past is not fully the past, but is always present in personal lives, as according to Ebaugh’s perspective (1988). Whereas one the other, the private and public spheres of street musicians’ lives are not clearly distinguishable and no clear line can be drawn between the front and the back stages (in both literal and metaphorical senses).
Hypothesis 4
-How do the constant interference/intermingling/interchanging among different roles hinder OR
act as moderator toward their coping (strategies and ability) with civil inattention?
The interference/intermingling/interchanging motions of roles can be double-edged. On one hand, the multiplicity nature of their roles and these constant motions between the roles could severely hinder the musicians’ fitting in or adaptations to their current role. As ex-roles and alternative roles consistent contend against their current role (as street musician). At the same time, the role multiplicity and the constant motions can be strategically beneficial to their course, as the effectiveness or even basis of some of their coping strategies are directly related to the possession of these roles.
15
3- Methodology
3.1 Context and Sample Selection
As a culturally rich and diversified city, famous for its tolerance and liberalistic social values, Amsterdam often attracts large number of street musicians from across Europe, especially during spring and summer when tourism in the Netherlands is at its peak. With its abundant number of potential study subjects and large pool of potential study samples, hence providing an ideal and highly feasible research site for this research study. Moreover, as arguably one of the most English friendly continental European cities, the researcher would not likely face much language barriers in Amsterdam.
The street musicians often possess a relatively great mobility, which is not only on a continental level because they tend to travel from city to city, but is also locally applicable as result of the local policies. Street performers, according to municipality regulations, need to apply for a license to play on a long term, and are allocated time slots basing on availability. Acoustic musicians are allowed to perform without a license, however, their performance time cannot exceed 40 minutes, and are only permitted in certain areas. As such musicians tend to change busking location depending on various reasons, including their allowed performance time, time of the day, walking traffic, etc. This relatively high mobility in turn provide a nuance to the proposed study. The researcher can not only observe the interactions, but would also be able to follow the routes these musicians may take through the city, and provide opportunity to compare different public spaces in the same urban context, hence testing whether there are other alternative explanations to the wide-spread civil inattention.
The initial plan is to select approximately six street musicians who are based in both the more touristic parts of the city, for instance Rembrandtplein, the Dam Square, Museumplein, as well as those based in the more locally inclined areas such as residential districts, local markets, etc. Selecting a wider range of research sites is a way to examine whether the assumption that the lack of attention from pedestrians is indeed due to internalized/ritualized civil inattention, or if there are other intermingling factors/interaction variables.
The ethnic and other demographic backgrounds of street musicians tend to be diversified, and the purpose of the proposed study is to analyze the group known as street musicians rather than a specific section, hence there would be no need to set restrictions during the selection of population sample or maintain a control over any of the background variables. Yet the degree of diversity need to be controlled and ensured during the selection process. A diversified sample that range in terms of age, gender, preferably multi-ethnical, would greatly help improve the validity and generalizability of the data to be collected, and in turn the findings of the study.
16 3.2 Data Collection
Fly on the wall styled non-participant observations, ethnographical go-along sessions, and semi-structured interviews were considered as the most ideal ways of getting the information needed to answer the research question.
Observations is effective in studying the behaviour of the common urbanites. Observations (fly on the wall) enabled the researcher to stay detached from the subjects of study, hence reducing any possible disruptions to the processes, and had been a more practical way of recording the behaviour and interactions in their most natural forms. (Hennink et al, 2011)
Walk-along or go-along sessions and semi-structured interviews were ideal ways of studying the street musicians. Go-along sessions, by spending a few hours at a time with the street musicians while staying relatively invisible, had proved to be a good way of observing the interactions (or the lack of interactions) between by passers and street performers. In both initial observations and the follow up walk-along/go-along sessions, exhaustively thick descriptions of the interactions and occurrences were recorded as detailed as possible. Field notes consisting of thick descriptions were then closely analyzed, meanings were attributed to the actions recorded in relation to the key concepts used in this study. Concepts such as civil inattention, negotiation of time and space, coping/resistance, were defined as previously discussed and these definitions were maintained throughout the data collection and analysis processes. A set of coding/indicators were then used to analyze the data in accordance to each of the concepts they are attached to.
Similar to the techniques used during a pilot study, the researcher attempted to approach a selected street musicians, dropped tips and enquired the time when his work ends. Then initiate conversation through self-introduction and explanation of the purpose of study. The conversation were usually casual and informal at first. Most of the time contact information were enquired I order to book appointments for interview. Appointment for more in-depth semi-structured interview were later requested. The location of the informal interactions and interviews mostly took place at a mutually convenient and comfortable location such as a cafe. Semi-structured interviews had been useful in analyzing the musicians’ personal life history, personal backgrounds, professional and other experiences. As they have the advantage of extracting potentially valuable information and allowed the researcher to be flexible and divert (Henninck et al, 2011). A framework of themes was constructed well in advance, an interview guide was prepared and used as aid during the interviewing processes. These interviews mostly consisted of open-ended questions and covered various topics and themes in regard to the sub questions listed in previous section. These themes were placed into three general categories, respectively ex-roles/past experiences; current-roles/current conditions; alternative-roles/alternative choices and future. Each theme consisting of sets of open-ended questions to fully cover the research interests. Although the guide was prepared in advance, with questions placed in an order (refer to Appendix),
17
the order of interview questions were not fixed, and was changed depending on the course of the conversation as well as the background of the interviewee.
3.3 Data Analysis
During observation sessions and walk along sessions, exhaustively thick field notes were taken. While with the consent of interviewees and research participants, some of the interviews were voice recorded. In addition, notes were taken during the formal conversations and semi-structured interviews in order to record the context, as well as the gestures and expressions during these conversations (which cannot be heard over the recordings).
The recordings and notes were then transcribed, with all names replaced with pseudonyms in the process, as means to protect and ensure confidentiality and personal identity. (Weiss, 1994) The transcriptions and field notes were then loaded to ATLAS.ti.
Data analysis began with data coding, which could be conducted using software such as ATLAS.ti, a qualitative analysis software The coding of data during the analysis can be both inductive and deductive as the coding begins with relevant theoretical concepts as identified earlier, whilst new concepts are to be identified and defined along the way as extension to the aforementioned theoretical concepts. The coding process was conducted in two phases, with the fieldnotes used to analyze the theme of ‘civil inattention’, and the transcriptions used to analyze role multiplicity of street musicians.
3.4 Limitations
Much of the potential limitations in this proposed study lie with the selected research techniques and methodology. Firstly ethnographical observations require the researcher to make thick descriptions, and these exhaustive field notes were to be coded and analyzed. The coding of these notes require clear definitions of the main concepts and setting out specific indicators that can represent and help measure the relevant concepts. What meanings can one draw from observations and how to verify these attributed meanings is a very tricky process and require further thoughts. In addition to this, interviews, especially those lacking a straight-forward structure and require the respondent to narrate past life experiences, may lack the necessary validity, subsequently affecting the reliability of the findings. In such case a degree of precaution is to be taken, and means of verification need to be used to improve and reduce such lack of reliability. The observations of their daily work not only provide opportunity to observe their interactions with common urbanites, but could also provide a way to verify the data collected through interviews.
During the actual data collection process, starting from the initial approaching to selected street musicians, a major limitation arose. In order to maintain a degree of diversity amongst the selected sample, age, gender, ethnicity and other demographic backgrounds were all taken into consideration and need to be controlled to enhance the validity of data. However, one of the most
18
striking fact during the data collection was the severe lack of female street musicians. In addition to that, almost all the middle to older aged street musicians the researcher had encountered were East European of origin, including Romani, Bulgarians, Polish and Hungarians, most of whom did not speak much English and very limited Dutch. Due to the loose immigration restrictions within the European Union, many East Europeans temporarily move to Amsterdam (among other West European cities), or simply stay for a matter of days, to busk and earn some seasonal income. Language barrier was the largest obstacle encountered during the process. Moreover, due to the high mobility possessed by many musicians, not only within the city but also from city to city or even from country to country, it had been a difficult task to maintain any form of connections. Upon on one occasion, a musician who had shared both phone number and email address with the researcher disappeared days before a scheduled interview. Days later the researcher was told that this musician’s mood began to gloom, and had left Amsterdam for home due to the personal sentimental state. There were multiple similar occurrences due to the above average mobility and personal state of many street musicians.
Although causing various inconveniences during the data collection stages, these adversities could indeed be considered as signs of some of the hypotheses discussed earlier. Firstly, the inconsistencies in their personal states and the easily affected moods could indicate a degree of vulnerability. Although many street musicians are fairly approachable and rather easy-going, some others encountered during data collection could be described as sentimental and paranoid at times. These individuals can be easily affected by the external environment and some trivial factors. Moreover, in the case of the musician who returned home after spending a few days in Amsterdam, there are signs of the hypothesized internal conflicts due to role multiplicity. As aforementioned, roles could include personal identities, demographic characteristics, personal experience, and familial ties, among many others. In this specific case, it is likely that his ex-roles (could be his past life experiences or other roles held before becoming a street musician, i.e. lying before the ‘street musician’ role on the temporal spectrum) or alternative roles (this could be familial connections, other professional roles, or personal mental state, which lie behind the stage, i.e. behind the current roles held by the musician on the spatial spectrum) played an upper hand over his current role as a street musician. Which then resulted in his unpredictability and inconsistency. The vulnerability and sensitivity could be result of various reasons, but internal conflicts and the nature of their job could be considered as part of the causes.
3.5 Ethical Considerations
As an often marginalized group in the urban context under question, some street musicians can be highly ‘vulnerable’ to the attitude shown by common urbanites and whose lives can be greatly affected by the indifference of by passers. As basic principles of ethical social research, respect for the research subjects’ autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice need to be taken into consideration and are the most fundamental base line. (Beauchamp & Childress, 2001)
19
Acquiring informed consent from studied subjects, maintaining anonymity and ensuring confidentiality are essential steps in respect for autonomy. While any potential additional harms are to be avoided with sensitivity and careful measure in research design.
By focusing on the street musicians, with consideration of their multiple-layered roles, the approach and potential over-emphasis may in turn reproduce the otherness not only among other urbanites, but may enhance the musicians’ self-perception, and further hinder their role adjustment processes. As both observations and semi-structured interviews are to be conducted, although greater depth and more thorough analysis of the group could be made possible, the data collection process would require intensive interviews and direct engagements with street musicians across urban spaces. Such direct interactions could create concerns over the reproduction of otherness as previously mentioned.
On the other hand, potential results coming out of such study could be beneficial to the group, as it could shed light on the origins of the dilemma they face, hence providing ground for potential adjustments as well as more effective coping strategies.
20
4- Data and Analysis
4.1 Categorization of Street Musicians
There is a diverse range of ways to allocate street musicians into categories. As street musicians often busk independently, and have exceptionally diverse personal backgrounds, it would be a difficult task assorting them into clearly defined groups or even sub-groups. However, for the purpose of distinguishing these individuals’ characteristics and pave the way to analyze their differences in coping with ‘civil inattention’ and their ‘roles’, categorization would be a necessary step. One way of categorizing street musicians could be based on musicology or their individual instrumental expertise. For instance place them into groups such as ‘the professional’, ‘the semi-professionals’, ‘non-professionals’. The ‘Professionals’ could be those who possess the expertise equal that of a professional musician, the ‘non-professionals’ would be those who lack the necessary expertise and are at best amateur in terms of skill.
Or alternatively, street musicians can be categorized basing on a set of characteristics, including their commitments to busking or music in general, the likelihood to move, and perhaps their attitudes toward busking. As the street musicians tend to be so demographically diverse, these characteristics could be a more sensible way in order to sort them into specific categories. Some are not well experienced musicians, but busk in the city simply to make a living and consider street performing as a source of income. Some consider busking as a part-time or seasonal job. Others only busk as a way to pay for their trips, and perform wherever they travel to. Subsequently, taking these characteristics into consideration, street musicians can also be placed into groups as follows:
i) The vagabonds
The word ‘vagabond’ literally means “a person, often in poverty, who wanders from place to place without a home or regular employment or income”, according to the Oxford Dictionary. Most musicians do have a home, and often move from city to city based on personal choice. At the same time, this term is a perfect description for a significant number of street musicians encountered during the observations. As citizens of European Union members states can often move across borders without much immigration restrictions, many musicians perform in West European cities such as Amsterdam to make a better living. These individuals are often attracted by the packs of tourists, the liberal ambiance in the city, or higher drop rate of tips. There are also those who originate from West European nations who tend to travel about with great mobility similar to those from other geographical regions. While there are others who choose to move about for the purpose of pursuing more abstract personal needs, such as aspiration, inspiration, or more simply put, personal freedom.
In short these are those street musicians who busk along streets with far above average mobility. They not only move within Amsterdam from district to district and from one hot-spot to another.
21
In contrast to musicians of other categories, these performers do not have a so-called ‘home city’ where they settle down and base at. Rather these musicians move from one city to another, and the duration of stay at each location often solely depend on very personal, sometimes random, sentiments or causes.
Alex is a guitarist who came to Amsterdam for a few days. Originally from Krakow, Poland, he travels across Europe with his girlfriend and busks along the way. To reduce living expenses, they often stay at their friends’ places whenever they travel.
As described in the short excerpt above taken from the field notes, Alex, a young Polish guitarist who travels extensively and does not have a regular employment nor a long-term place he can call home. Although from Krakow, he and his girlfriend rarely return to their home city. When they arrive at a new city, they busk to make money to cover their travel costs, while stay at their friends’ homes or sleep at people they ‘met’ on www.couchsurfing.com (couch surfing is a cost-free way to travel adopted by many youngsters across the globe, they request a couch/sofa at the host’s home and often stay for a few nights at a time). Taking these in mind, Alex would be an ideal example of this particular category.
ii) The full-timers
These musicians often consider busking as their main source of income. Many of these performers come from relatively less well-off nations are only recently settled in Amsterdam. Lacking employment and only slowly blending into the new context, these musicians seek an alternative source of income in the form of street busking. There are others who are less desperate and settle down temporarily in Amsterdam to busk along the street. One characteristic in common between these musicians is their daily commitment, as all these individuals perform on a tight routine compared to the other groups, are often more disciplined, and often move about in the city regardless of the municipality regulations and other restrictions.
Vince, a folk singer and guitarist, could be considered as an example of this category. Although he has recorded personal albums and has performed at various occasions, his professional life mostly consist of performing by streets and busking in cities across Europe. As he considers busking as his main profession and source of income, whereas music production is deemed as more of a part-time profession, he could well be considered as a ‘full-timer’, as he commits to busking on an almost full-time scale.
22 iii) The part-timers
These musicians are similar to the above in terms of their personal backgrounds, the main difference is again based on their commitment to street busking. These individuals often have other alternative jobs, for instance some the researcher encountered are students who perform either as an opportunity to practice, or to earn some part-time income. The part-timers often perform at a much looser and more flexible routine compared to the previous two groups, and are relatively less committed to street busking and have a much lower mobility. They often selected a specific location and perform on an average of two or three days a week, each time for about 1 hour. Steve and Jake, two young violinists who often perform at the Museumplein, could be used as examples of this category. Both of these young musicians are music students in Amsterdam. They busk at their spare time to earn some money to cover their living expenses and other costs, in addition, they consider street performing as an opportunity to practice and develop both skills and stage performance ability. Their schedule is not as rigid compared to the ‘full-timers’ and often perform only a few sessions a week. They rarely change their location, as they consider the spot they perform at a “perfect suit”, where a significant walking traffic can be guaranteed and the tourists often drop considerable amount of tips, as such these two individuals fit perfectly into this category.
iv) The occasionals
Then there are the ‘occasionals’, who, as the literal meaning implies, are those who only do street busking occasionally. These individuals either have a very specific purpose in mind, for instance practicing on a musical instrument before a special occasion, or as a test/experiment; or they consider street busking as an off the road activity, for example professional or underground musicians who street busk in Amsterdam as they are touring through Europe or participating in music festivals; there are also those who perform occasionally seeking inspiration or stimulation.
Today is Koningsdag and I am sitting on the grass by Museumplein right in front of Rijksmuseum… the kid is play drums, a little girl stands nearby holding a hat asking for tips. An adult male is sitting behind the two kids and occasionally giving the boy instructions. The two kids instantly attracted a sizable crowd.
“Ja, it’s holiday, so I’m taking my children out… Just for fun you know, my boy likes the sun, so we decided to set up here in the middle [of the square]…”
The above excerpt depicts two children performing and busking on the Koningsdag by the Museumplein. As a note, residents of Amsterdam are permitted to set up stalls almost anywhere in the city on this festival. These two children, accompanied by their father (who later revealed to me the purpose of performing as street musician), could be considered as ‘occasionals’, as they most
23
likely only perform on this special day.
Joshua Bell, the renowned violinist who conducted the experiment in a Washington subway station, would be another example of this category, as his busking could likely be a one-time experience for a specific purpose (in this case, experimentation).
These categorization, as well as being a convenient way to help distinguish and classify street musicians, is also essential in the later sections where musicians’ coping strategies and mechanisms will be discussed. Due to the diverse backgrounds of street musicians, it would be difficult to make sense of how their coping capability may vary, and how different strategies would be used by street musicians of different categories. Moreover, without the assistance of such categorization, attempts to differentiate coping methods and subsequent discussion of findings can be rather confusing and unstructured.
4.2 The Unwritten Rule and ‘Indifferent’ By-passers
As aforementioned, the unwritten rule of averting any form of direct interactions with strange others is widely followed by the majority of urbanites, for whom this could be considered as a way of reducing the burden induced by the overwhelming amount of information in today’s urban environment, but could also become a major obstacle for street musicians, who are the key in this research study.
The platform is deserted as it is 11am and most of the people are either at work or in school. I kept walking until I stopped by a young male. I purposely stood closer to him than usual. He gave me a glance, and quickly looked away. I could sense his discomfort as I felt rather awkward as well despite doing it on purpose. I looked away and then turn back and noticed that while I looked away, he has taken a small step away from me and the distance between us is further than I remembered. He then took out his cell phone and start tapping on the keypad.
It is 18:30, I am walking across the street to do some groceries at an Albert Heijn. There are many people going in and out of the supermarket as it is a busy time with many people off work and doing groceries along their way home. A young male is playing guitar next to the entrance and greets every one walking in and out. As a young girl walked by with her headphones on, she did not seem to notice the young guitarist next to entrance, however the moment she walked past the guitarist she took out her cellphone in her hands, yet as she entered Albert Heijn, she placed it back in her pocket again.
24
Although the individuals in the above scenarios reacted differently to the people nearby, one thing in common is that they all attempted to avoid any type of direct interaction with other unacquainted individuals. The young male clearly felt awkward because I stood closer to him than people normally do. The ‘unwritten rule’ of keeping personal space has become so internalized, even I felt uncomfortable despite doing it intentionally as part of my series of experiment. Spacing out as a way of maintaining a degree of personal space is evident in these scenes. Because I have ‘invaded’ the personal space of the young man, while I observed his reaction, he was observing my action at the same time. As I looked away, he took it as a chance to step further from me and keep up a distance that is of more comfort.
The second scenario indicates that the unwritten rule in our city not only affect those others who similarly follow the same set of rule, but also affect the street performers, musicians in this case, who intend to contend for the time and attention of those passing by against the web of ‘civil inattention’. The cell phones, and music players are often seen as a way to pass time while walking along the streets. However, at the same time these tools can be depicted as protective techniques to maintain a degree of personal space. In order to not make the ignoring of other individuals to be seen as an unwelcoming and cold behaviour, the by passers tend to use these tools to avoid embarrassment. By indulging themselves in the music, gaming or text messaging, it would make their behaviour seem more ‘natural’. Postures and gestures are more direct ways of maintaining a comfortable personal space. Although in these cases, all the individuals reacted with self-restraint and when feeling awkward, only utilized unobtrusive gestures and postures to indicate this discomfort. However, this may not always end up this way.
Again outside the Albert Heijn, the young guitarist is performing with his dog lying next to him with its legs stretched out on the ground. A young man walks by while texting with his phone and talking with another friend along the way. He walks into the dog, who was as startled as he was, and the dog stood up almost in an instant. The young man said something in Dutch that I couldn’t understand but it was evident that he was angry about the incidence. The guitarist apologized and bowed to the young man and pulled his dog further away from the entrance, while the young man walked into the supermarket without any form of acknowledgement.
As seen from this extreme example, the breaching of the ‘unwritten rules’, although done unintentionally, ended up in a relatively violent way. Such violent reactions only occur very occasionally. As reflected from my field notes, in most cases only minor breaching of the ‘rule’ take place, and the majority of common urbanites obey the ‘rule’ almost as a ‘ritual’ or habitual action.
25
Vince, a folk singer accompanied with an acoustic guitar, is a Scandinavian musician who constantly travels between European cities, produces music, has recorded two albums, and busking forms an important part of his life during his travels. It began with a non-participant observation, as I attempted to remain unnoticed by the by passers so to avoid any personal disruption to his work, yet at a distance close enough in order to observe and record any interactions or conversations that may take place. As part of the municipality regulations, street musicians are issued license and are given rigid time slots. Following his one hour performance slot, he then showed me to his favorite locations where he often plays at and along the way shared many interesting stories.
The observation of Vince’s hour long working process in many ways fully illustrate this process of civil inattention. As this is still low season of tourism in the Netherlands, in spite of picking the Waterlooplein market (being the location of a famous flea market, this is a very popular hotspot for tourists) for the day, the drop rate, according to him, is far lower than high seasons such as summer. There was a considerable amount of walking traffic, as it was lunch time on a working day, yet much of the passing by pedestrians travelled in determined pace indicating that many are in fact locals, while the number of tourists were very limited. Below are several scenarios recorded during the observation, indicating various types of interactions that take place, yet at the same time illustrating the existence of civil inattention and its impact on Vince’s work.
A middle aged couple are walking across the street and are approaching the spot. Both have backpacks, perhaps tourists? It’s apparent that they have a destination in mind though, as they walk rather fast without the curious glancing of nearby areas as tourists often do. The woman glances at Vince, apparently notices his singing. The man talked on, seeing the woman slowing her pace, said something to her, and the woman turn her face and kept walking.
A group of four adults are walking toward him. All Caucasians speaking Dutch. Look like a family, as the age of the group is quite diversified. A teenage boy takes notice of Vince and glanced at him, while the other few walked on without looking this way. As the group approached, all the adults quickly glanced at Vince, but as soon as Vince looked up attempting to make eye contact and make an impression, their eye sights averted that of Vince and walked away without taking further notice of him.
These scenarios all illustrate forms of interactions or lack of interactions from individual urbanites of various ethnic, gender and age backgrounds. Although hardly generalizable, these indicate several factors that are worth further observations on, such as age, purpose of travelling, personal
